The closure of Freedom Ridge [DR#25] has prompted a reorganization
of the Area 51 Research Center designed to increase efficiency and
better serve the public. The most significant of these changes is
the opening of a new branch office in Las Vegas. Rachel Area
Director Glenn Campbell, in recognition of his tireless efforts on
behalf of government accountability, has been promoted to Regional
Director and will man the new facility part-time. The Rachel
headquarters will continue to serve as administrative center
manned by our able local staff, but the Las Vegas office will take
over most operational tasks.

The advantages of a location in the Heart of Neon are abundant:
access to cheap communications, public libraries, a well-connected
airport, fresh produce, video rentals, all-you-can-eat buffets and
24-hour Wal-Marts. The mental health of our Regional Director was
also an issue. After two and a half years living exclusively in
Rachel--150 miles from the nearest Seven-Eleven--Mr. Campbell was
bouncing off the walls and had to be sedated all too frequently.
While in Las Vegas, Campbell will be out of reach of drunk bar
owners and hillbilly sheriffs and does not have to go to bed every
night with an escape route in mind. Much as we love to hate Las
Vegas [DR#11], this city is
unquestionably the cultural center of modern human civilization as
we know it. It also offers the possibility of decent pizza
delivered fresh within 30 minutes.

Our new facility is an apartment in a modern complex aptly named
The Oasis. It is an island in a sea of neon, only one block away
from the crossroads of the "new" Las Vegas: Tropicana Ave. and the
Strip. The hotels here are the largest and silliest in the world.
On one corner of this junction is a tropical resort; on another is
a Wizard of Oz theme park; on the third corner is a fairytale
castle next to a full-scale Egyptian pyramid. The fourth corner
is vacant now but will soon contain a casino reproduction of New
York City.

By coincidence, our new office happens to overlook yet another
fantasy attraction: the secret "Janet" terminal in the northwest
corner of
McCarran Airport
where most workers at Groom Lake and
Tonopah Test Range leave their cars and fly to work aboard
unmarked 737s. The parking lot is only about 100 yards from our
window across a narrow vacant lot. Area 51 may not officially
exist, but we now have the power to track and identify nearly
everyone who works there. It is a power we have no plans to use,
however, because we feel that the privacy of individual workers
should be protected. We hope that our presence alone may
encourage more openness on a voluntary basis.

No car coming in or out of the compound escapes our view, and we
can clearly see the workers getting on and off the planes. If we
cared to, we could record every license plate and photograph every
face. Through our best optics we can almost read the ID cards
flashed to the guard at the gate upon entry. The workers seem
like ordinary folk who might be employed in any high-tech factory.
They are always in civilian clothes, but they may carry a
briefcase or sports bag. Cars range from high-end luxury models
to low-brow beaters. Judging from the relative emptiness of the
parking lot at night, most workers come and go on the same day for
a regular eight-hour shift, Monday through Friday, with only a
skeleton force staying for the night or weekend. Although
identical 737s serve the two different bases, it is pretty easy to
tell which workers are going to Groom Lake from the timing of
their arrival at the parking lot to coincide with those flights.
The Cammo Dudes are easy to spot, too, because those are the beefy
ones, paid to work out.

Of course, the surveillance can work both ways. Being across the
street from a government facility makes it a lot easier for THEM
to keep an eye on US. This doesn't bother us much, since we are
an open entity without many secrets.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. The NSA
headquarters at Ft. Meade, Maryland [DR#8] faced a similar problem when Soviet
spies took up residence in a motel next door. The NSA simply
bought the property and absorbed it into its complex. (The motel
later became the NSA public museum, which we lost our film for
photographing.) Likewise, the government could purchase the Oasis
Apartments, but that wouldn't make much sense unless they also
purchased the major hotels that overlook the terminal: the
Tropicana, Excalibur, Luxor, San Remo, Hacienda and MGM Grand.
Four or five billion dollars ought to cover it. A less expensive
alternative would be to abandon the Janet terminal and move the
operation to Nellis AFB, at great inconvenience to workers.

On a more personal level, the government could initiate another
nuisance legal action against one of our members, like Campbell's
obstruction charge which is now in appeal. Even if baseless, such
actions could keep us occupied for a while. Alas, this might also
encourage some of our more disruptive colleagues to be a lot less
discreet with the data that passes by our window every day. A
yearbook of Cammo Dudes, with their photos and addresses posted to
the World Wide Web, would seem inevitable. (If the secret
agencies place our people in jeopardy, the same could happen to
theirs.)

Several of the legendary Groom Lake Interceptors, including
Agent
X, The Minister and Tom & Jeri were on hand for the ribbon
cutting ceremonies at our new facility. Of course, we have a
network news crew at all of our functions, and CBS Sunday
Morning was the first to visit our new Las Vegas annex.
Their report is tentatively scheduled to air this Sunday morning,
May 28, on all CBS stations.
[Followup in DR#27]

The visit by the CBS crew, who appeared on our balcony with their
big Betacam, provoked the first signs of recognition from the
folks across the street. One of the remote controlled cameras on
the roof of the secret terminal swung around to look directly at
us. A security dude drove up to the vacant lot beside us, got out
of his vehicle, put his hands on his hips and shook his head. We
could almost hear the local management saying, "Oh, shit," and
issuing a flurry of memos all the way to the Pentagon.

The Rachel headquarters will continue to be open to the public
(usually on weekends and weekday mornings), while the Las Vegas
annex will generally be closed to the public except by prior
arrangement (since this is the place where we try to get things
done).

Who Owns The Janet Terminal?

The "Janet" jets are Boeing 737s with tail numbers but no insignia
[DR#15] that transport the
majority of workers to Groom and Tonopah. "Janet" followed by a
flight number is the name used on FAA frequencies. There has been
a lot of speculation about what "Janet" might mean, but we have no
concrete data.

For the past few years, the red-striped jets and the seven-pad
terminal at 5400 Haven Ave. have been operated for the government
by the private contractor EG&G. In DR#15, we reported rumors that the
Air Force itself was taking over the day-to-day operation of these
flights, but recent information now suggests that the changeover
never happened. Supposedly, the Air Force was ready to take it
over; a date was set, but when the day came the EG &amp G
management somehow remained in place. Meanwhile, the ownership of
the jets themselves has been gradually transferred from various
holding companies to direct Air Force ownership registered at Hill
AFB in Clearfield, Utah.

Here's how to find the top secret terminal: From the giant lion's
head at the Emerald City, turn south at the fairytale castle and
Easter Island monoliths, go past the full-size Sphinx and Egyptian
pyramid; turn left at the Happi Inn, go down two blocks, and there
it is: the entrance to "Dreamland."

Guide To Our World

The Las Vegas annex is within a two-block radius of five (5) all-
you-can-eat buffets, which we partake of frequently. Our capsule
reviews...

Luxor: Superior food in a spectacular setting.

Hacienda: Sucks. Don't go.

Excalibur: A crowded feeding trough. Avoid it.

MGM: Mediocre and way overpriced.

San Remo: Very nice. Small buffet in classy surroundings.

For entertainment, the Luxor is a "must see." The pyramid is
hollow and contains a city inside. Don't miss the motion sickness
ride (Episode 1) and the big screen extravaganza (Episode 3). You
can skip the TV talk show (Episode 2) and the boat ride on the
indoor Nile. [We'll have an in-depth review of Luxor in a future
Rat.]

The MGM casino and theme park, centered on the Wizard of Oz theme,
is a major dud in our opinion, designed by corporate Munchkins
with no real imagination. Notable only as the largest hotel in
the world--5005 rooms--the MGM requires a one-half mile walk,
mostly past slot machines, from one end of the complex to the
other. The theme park is a pale miniature of Disney. The rides
are the saddest we have experienced, but at least entry to the
park itself is now free.

Now under construction is "New York, New York," a theme casino
reproducing an idealized Manhattan skyline, including Statue of
Liberty and Coney Island roller coaster. It will be
unrealistically sanitized, no doubt, with no smell of urine on the
sidewalks. Under construction at the MGM is a monorail connecting
that hotel with Bally's a few blocks north on the Strip. There, a
casino reproduction of Paris is planned: half-size Eiffel Tower,
Arc de Triomphe, snooty waiters, etc.

We keep predicting that the whole house of cards will soon
collapse and that Las Vegas will finally suffer the tragic bust it
justly deserves. No sign of it yet, however. For now, the maxim
is, "Build it, and they will come."

We've just come back from a two-week pilgrimage to New Mexico.
Highlights of our journey...

-- A tour of the Very Large Array radio telescope on the Plains of
San Augustin, courtesy of one of our subscribers who works there.
This is an impressive line-up of 27 big mobile dishes which work
together as one giant receiver listening to the cosmos. It is the
backdrop for many car commercials, and it will soon be a filming
location for the big-budget movie Contact. (The
story concerns earth's first contact with extraterrestrials, based
on the novel written by Carl Sagan before he became an
"Arschloch.") Anyone can take a walking tour on the ground, but
our contact took us up into one of the dishes, a 25-meter bowl
that would be ideal for skateboarding when in the upright
position. The VLA claims to do no secret work, only pure science,
but we know better. Those same dishes receiving microwaves from
the stars could also be used to transmit secret messages to
invading aliens. As we toured the facility, we were on the
lookout for any clues that might give away the real project.
Behind big steel doors was the Brain Room, where all the signals
from the dishes converged. Inside this air conditioned, heavily
shielded chamber, we saw a lot of blinking lights on consoles and
smelled a mysterious odor that immediately put us on alert. It
was--sniff, sniff--Szechwan! Our search of the Brain Room
revealed no source, but later in the tour we did notice that the
array controller in another part of the building was cooking a
stir-fry lunch. We left the VLA with none of our suspicions
allayed but still no solid proof.

[Official VLA Home Page*]
The Plains of San Augustin, west of Socorro, also happen to be the
site of an alleged flying saucer crash. If you believe a certain
Roswell scenario, a second craft came down here on the same night
in July 1947.

-- A visit to Los Alamos, site of Lazar's prior employment--as
physicist or gopher--and the probable quarantine location for the
"Boys" in Jarod's story [DR#24]. Los
Alamos National Laboratories is a fascinating "island in the sky,"
built on high, finger-shaped mesas overlooking the Rio Grande. It
was founded for the Manhattan project during WWII and was once a
secret "nonexistent" city similar to Groom. Now, it is quite
accessible and not the sort of place you could land a UFO or keep
anything secret outdoors. The city of Los Alamos was once the
central area of the laboratory, but most of that land is now
private businesses and residences. It seems like a cross between
a small college town and wealthy resort community. Houses cover
the mesas to the east of the town center, and the most desirable
homes are perched on cliffs overlooking the valley. (By contrast,
Bob Lazar's former residence is very humble.) The laboratory
covers the mesas to the west. Unlike a military base, the main
roads of the reservation are open to the public, with only
individual compounds restricted. The security around some
complexes is impressive--triple concertina wire and video cameras
everywhere--but the handling of nuclear materials could easily
account for most of it.

-- A drop-in at the International UFO Museum in Roswell, occupying
a storefront on Main Street. We are, after all, a "Participating
Founder" of that institution (or was it "Founding Participant"?)
having paid good money for the distinction. We also stopped by
the competing institution, the Outa Limits UFO Museum near the
airport. Relations between the two seem distant, but things
certainly haven't degenerated to the state in Rachel.

-- A brief visit to Midway, an unincorporated village about 9
miles southeast of Roswell and within view of the former Roswell
Army Airfield. Here is the site of the Midway Sightings mentioned
by Jarod 2 [DR#24]. Ambiguous
objects videotaped here have made their way onto the tabloid
shows: Hard Copy, Sightings, etc. Some objects are blurred "rods"
moving rapidly across the frame; others are "beads" hanging in the
sky. No skeptic would be convinced, but the tapes remain
intriguing to us. There are clearly a lot of different phenomena
here, with many possible explanations. Some could be insects
flying close to the camera but seeming to be far away; other
objects could be airplanes or weather balloons blurred by the
limited resolution of the consumer video camera. At least one
scene leaves us without an obvious explanation: A bead hangs in
the sky for a while then vanishes, replaced by a long white vortex
stretching from the ground to high in the sky.

The Midway Sightings seem to be largely dismissed by the UFO
"establishment" in Roswell, which makes them all the more
attractive to us. The Midway UFO Museum is on the west side of
Highway 2 between Roswell and Dexter, across from the Midway
Church. This humble roadside attraction makes the Little A'Le'Inn
look palatial. It is a faux Western town, never quite completed,
that was restored to life by the Midway Sightings and the
publicity that ensued. In one building is the darkened viewing
room, where the proprietors showed us some of their video tapes.
In another building is a museum under construction and a gift shop
full of merchandise imprinted with the Midway Sightings logo. As
usual, the possible profit motive and other icky human impulses
greatly complicate the problem of evaluation. Nonetheless, we
regard the people we met--Becky and Manual Escamilla--as genuine.
They believe that what they have captured on tape is
extraterrestrial, and we do not think they are engaged in any
deliberate fakery.

Alas, there is always a giant gulf between seeing an ambiguous
object in the sky and being able to draw any useful conclusions.
At best, further analysis of the video might prove what the
objects are NOT, but it won't prove what they are. The only thing
we can do is turn the story over to Robert Stack so he can say,
"It's an unsolved mystery."

-- At the Roswell municipal airport, formerly the famous air base
where dead aliens may or may not have been processed, we met up
with military monitor Steve Douglass, editor of Intercepts
Newsletter. His is a profile that is hard to miss: a big guy with
a Radio Shack scanner surgically attached to his left hand. He
was, of course, monitoring all of the radio traffic in the nearby
area, which lead to an interesting interception....

The Roswell airport, although now a civilian facility, was hosting
a team of Bad Guys in the big Roving Sands war game exercise. The
military presence at the airport was huge, with countless jets,
humvees, tanker trucks and radar vans on site. At the time we
arrived, a number of military aircraft were on public display
during a lull in the exercise. There were a couple hundred
civilians wandering among the hardware in a cordoned-off area of
the tarmac, watched by military security along the perimeter. We
arrived first at about 4:00pm, located Steve among the jets, then
quickly left again to run an errand. We returned to the air show
again at 5:00 pm, and as soon as we did, Steve heard this crystal
clear radio transmission from the security dudes:

"Psychospy's Back."

These 2.5 words are rich with implications. We told no one we
were coming to Roswell except in private telephone conversions.
When we arrived at the airport in both instances, we were in a
crowd of civilians. The dudes could have identified us by running
our plates, but this certainly isn't routine for visitors to an
air show. Of course, certain of our membership has previously
appeared on television, but we don't regard our appearance in a
crowd to be yet distinctive enough to allow a positive
identification. Furthermore, the name "Psychospy" has never been
mentioned on television, only in print, so it hasn't been linked
to a face.

In short, it seems highly unlikely that the security dudes would
have been able to get a positive lock on Psychospy in such a short
time without some warning that we were coming to Roswell. This,
in turn, seems to imply concerted surveillance of some kind. We
are flattered by the attention but also curious as to what the
mode of surveillance might be. We have no problem with our
"friends" keeping an eye on us, as we do for them, as long as they
obey the law.

The military boundaries surrounding Freedom Ridge and White Sides
remain poorly marked. The Air Force has erected only orange
posts, widely spaced, that are ambiguous to outsiders and
invisible at night. We find these plainly insufficient to warn
people off, so with notice to BLM we parked our old camper beside
the Groom Lake road with some warning signs attached to the
windows. Already, one party arriving at night overlooked the
camper and attempted the Freedom Ridge hike. They suffered the
usual brutal treatment by the Cammo Dudes--down on their knees,
hands over their heads for an hour. They were cited by the
Sheriff and given the usual $600 fine, no leniency. Naturally,
this pisses us off.

Another party that visited later did see our camper and was saved
as a result. This was a prominent television actor visiting the
area with his son. If our signs had not been there, they would
have tried the hike, crossed the new border and suffered the usual
rough detention and arrest. That would have been a pretty pickle
for the Cammo Dudes. It so happens this actor is known for his
role in the series L.A. Law, and his was the same
character who Campbell tried to emulate at his obstruction trial.
It would make an interesting situation: Famous actor crosses line
and generates immediate headlines. Lincoln County District
Attorney Tom Dill, being totally brainless on matters like this,
would have pressed charges regardless, and the actor would be
faced with the choice of taking the fine or pleading Not Guilty
and sticking up for his rights. On the small screen, this actor
portrays a lawyer who always stands for Truth, Justice and the
American Way. Would he plead or go to trial? If he went to
trial, he would probably bring a competent lawyer, and the case
would make it into tabloids everywhere. It would mean still more
publicity for the secret base and another black eye for the Air
Force and county law enforcement, who seem to never learn a
lesson.

Sooner or later, we will have to remove our camper from its
parking place. Then there will be no warning before Freedom
Ridge, and visitors with outdated information are going to start
flooding across the border for the usual unpleasant reception.
The anonymous Dudes who intercept the intruders will not identify
themselves, so the suspects will never have the opportunity to
face their accusers in court--a fundamental Constitutional right.
This is when we would be morally and ethically obligated to
publish our Big Book of Cammo Dudes, including photographs,
license plate numbers and home addresses of each of the security
officers who patrol the border and adjoining public lands. (It
would be easy to put together: Just compare our photos of Dudes
from the border with those leaving the gate.) The defendants (and
anyone else) can then browse through this document to identify
those who accosted them.

We'd really hate to publish the identities of the Cammo Dudes;
it's SO disruptive, but the Air Force would leave us no choice.
All they have to do to avoid this painful circumstance is post
adequate signs at logical places where naive tourists might cross.
Away from roads--which are already clearly marked where they cross
the border--we know of only two significant problem areas: One is
the former trail to Freedom Ridge, where a tourist with old
information could easily cross the new posts. The other danger
zone is where the Groom Lake Road crosses the original border,
which hasn't changed. Here, the Restricted Area signs on either
side suggest a boundary that is perpendicular to the road, when
the real line runs diagonal to it. Since outsiders are unlikely
to notice the orange posts, especially at night, more signs are
needed a few feet on either side to indicate the border's
orientation.

We expect the Air Force to do more than the minimum required by
Nevada law, which is to place orange posts every 200 feet. We
expect them to take every reasonable and intelligent precaution to
prevent average tourists from crossing the line. If they don't,
and an innocent visitor is nabbed as a result, our great Cammo
Dude tome will promptly follow.

According to a May 5 article in the Las-
Vegas Review-Journal, the judge in the Groom hazardous
waste lawsuit has allowed the case to proceed without requiring
the Air Force to provide a name for the Area 51 facility. It will
be identified in legal documents only as "an operating location
near Groom Lake."

[Secretary of the Air Force Sheila] Widnall, in an unclassified
declaration, said that the classified information, if released,
"could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage
to national security."

The base has no actual operating name per se, Widnall stated.
But she told Pro that revealing the program names would compromise
base missions, military operations, intelligence sources,
technological matters, contracting relationships and "security
sensitive environmental data."

"Collection of information regarding the air, water and soil is
a classic foreign intelligence practice because analysis of these
samples can result in the identification of military operations
and capabilities," Widnall argued.

She said the presence or absence of certain chemicals could
reveal classified operations and that disclosure "increases the
risk to the lives of United States personnel and decreases the
probability of successful mission accomplishments."

So even the dirt is classified at Groom Lake. That is convenient
for the Air Force, because the best way to prove whether or not
illegal dumping took place there is to drill a core sample at the
alleged site. Widnall seems to be saying that no environmental
monitoring will be tolerated at Area 51 unless the results are
classified and controlled by the Air Force.

We wonder which of our potential enemies is sophisticated enough
to deduce our secrets from our air, water and soil and use that
knowledge against us in war. The Soviets might have been
interested back when we were engaged in a race for advanced
materials, but who can compete with us on those grounds now?

Sounds like a lame excuse to us, and we don't see why the
government doesn't just settle the suit anyway. We can tell from
Widnall's response that Area 51 is going to be in the news for a
long, long time, and the growing band of Groom Lake Interceptors
will continue to be energized by the moral righteousness of their
inquiry. Is this any way to run a secret base?

Chuckie's Handbook Available

The Little A'Le'Inn's resident UFO expert Chuck Clark--Rachel's
own "Forrest Gump" but without the charm--has finally published
his Area 51 &amp S-4 Handbook (aka his rip-off of
Glenn Campbell's Area 51 Viewer's Guide). We've
glanced though a copy but haven't yet read it, so we can't pass
judgment on its content. It sure looks like the Viewer's
Guide, though. Same blue spiral binding and clear cover,
same price, similar chapter headings, same hand-written copy
number in the corner of the cover. (A friend of ours has Copy #1;
we tried to buy it from him for an enormous sum, but he won't
sell.) On a positive note, we can report that Clark's book is
more compact: 58 pages in big print compared to Campbell's 115
densely packed pages. The fewer pages, bigger type and larger
photos may be helpful to adults with poor eyesight or children who
are learning to read. There are, however, no signs of the color
photos promised by Pat Travis [DR#24].

Clark's book does have something significant that Campbell's
lacks: Actual photos of UFOs taken at the Black Mailbox. There
is at least one full-page shot of
Kathleen Ford's "Space Bubbles,"
taken with a special camera at the rancher's mailbox 20 miles east
of town. Kathleen is the truest of the True Believers, and many
of her UFO photos adorn the walls of the Inn. She has taken some
great pictures of magnesium flares suspended over the Nellis
bombing ranges, but lately she has been focusing on the Space
Bubbles, which are much more spiritual. She makes the pilgrimage
from Las Vegas to the Black Mailbox on Wednesday nights when there
is no moon. The Space Bubbles are peculiar in that they show up
only on film when Kathleen takes a flash photo pointed toward the
Restricted Zone with her special camera. Because of their ghostly
nature, people can't see the bubbles directly, and they won't
perform for any camera except the special one. It may seem
senseless to take a flash picture of the night sky, but it does
provide reference points for size and position by highlighting
Joshua trees and other ground objects at the bottom of the frame.

Kathleen once came to our Research Center to show us her full
album of Space Bubbles. She pointed out how each bubble had
identical structure, like a faint moon that is three quarters full
and about one eighth the width of the frame. She tried to show us
the door of this alien craft, but we couldn't quite see it. We
reviewed her work, then politely suggested that these objects were
in fact internal lens reflections of the brightly lit Joshua trees
at the bottom of the frame. We offered the theory that the
bubbles showed up in these pictures and not those taken during the
day only because the dark background allowed them to be seen.
Before we could finish, Kathleen closed her album and stormed out
of our facility, saying she would show her pictures only to people
who were more open-minded.

And so she found Chuck. They have formed an alliance, the exact
nature of which we have not yet determined. At Las Vegas UFO
meetings, where she sometimes shows up with Chuckie in tow,
Kathleen has denounced us as the vilest form of government agent,
a charge we have never denied.

As the Groom Lake "newspaper of record," it is our responsibility
to provide ordering information for Chuckie's book. It can be
obtained by sending a check for $15 plus $3 shipping to Chuck
Clark, HCR Box 43, Rachel, NV 89001. (We have no legal objection
to the book, but we will NOT provide ordering info for Chuck's
cheapo rip-off Area 51 patch
[photo in DR#23],
since it is an obvious violation of
the Campbell/Goodall copyright.) Alas, Chuckie got rudely flamed
when he announced his book on the newsgroups, including a stern
essay on integrity by Agent X. Chuckie
came out of his shell to reply to X directly...

Sorry you're so intimidated by a little healthy competition -
obviously, you and your lover, Glenn, are not going to be pleased
by upcoming events that are currently in the works. You've made a
healthy business for yourselves, but now it's time for you to
share the stage with other viewpoints and products.

You knock my credibility - but just how good do you think you
look leaving petty tirades like the one of May 3, 1995 on the
Internet? I certainly won't belittle myself to respond publicly
to such immature drivel.

When are all of the play names like Agent X, Container X,
Shadowhawk, etc. going to cease? Both you and Glenn are like a
couple of 10 year olds playing war - with all the self-glorifying
(in your minds) titles.

Get your facts STRAIGHT before you run off at the keyboard ---
you haven't yet!

Is that sexual innuendo we detect in the first paragraph? Both
Campbell and his lover X, secure in each other's arms, eagerly
await those "upcoming events" whatever they may be.

We do admit that all the secret code names are hard to keep track
of. Perhaps we can someday publish a glossary, but the
definitions are classified for now. We can at least provide this
partial list of code names, each corresponding to discrete human
entities: Psychospy, Agent X, The Minister of Words, The Great
One, Spy One, Shadowhawk, Tom &amp Jeri, The Cops, The Good Merlin
(not to be confused with the Evil Ambassador) and The Swiss
Mountain Bat. ("Container X" is the email address for Agent X,
the latter being already taken on AOL.)

Since being so harshly treated in the newsgroups, Chuckie has been
reluctant to show his face publicly on the net. He now sells his
photos of the Groom base through a front: Martha George in Las
Vegas. Advertisements by Martha (area51pics@aol.com) on the
newsgroups gave no hint that it is Chuckie's photos she was
selling, but the ruse was pretty easy to figure out. The $15
price sounds okay, but we haven't seen the pictures.

If you would like to get in touch with Chuck Clark, to compliment
him on his work or to form a strategic alliance, do drop him a
line via clarkmon@aol.com.

"Friendship Camp-Out" At Inn

In its never-ending effort to exploit the UFO market, the Little
A'Le'Inn will be sponsoring another ironically named "UFO
Friendship Camp-Out" in Rachel this coming weekend, May 27-29,
1995. Kathleen Ford will be speaking, as well as a couple who
were abducted by an alien named Quaylar at Milepoint 26.1 about
two years ago. According to the flyer for the event, there will
be three other speakers, at least one of whom didn't know he was
speaking until he got the mailing. This a common technique on the
UFO conference circuit: listing as a confirmed speaker respected
figures who have merely been invited and haven't had a chance to
decline. These speakers rarely turn up at the event, but in the
meantime their good name has been used to sell tickets.

For this conference, the Inn has doubled their previous entry fee
to $100 per person. Perhaps because of their recent publicity on
Larry King and elsewhere, the Travis's feel they can get that
much, but it is still a lot to pay for a tiny gathering in the
middle o' nowhere with no prominent speakers. (For the same
price, you could go to a big-time UFO loonfest in Vegas or L.A.
and see Sean Morton.) The $100 fee includes buffet meals,
entrance to the Big Top for however many speakers show up and the
right to set up your own tent in a vacant lot across from the Inn
that the landowner doesn't know is being used for this purpose.

For tickets or more information, contact the Inn at 702-729-2515.
However, if your interest in the event is merely anthropological,
we note that security has never been tight at these functions--
usually just Chuckie sitting near the army tent collecting
tickets. Although we do not approach this area personally out of
fear for our life, our friends have never had any trouble crashing
these parties. If you happen to drop by the restaurant while the
event is going on, the buffet is usually about $5, and after that
you can probably sneak into the tent when Chuckie lets down his
guard. Our mobile-home Research Center at the other end of town
will be open that weekend, and visitors are welcome to stop by
free of charge.

Regardless of which speakers show up, you can expect a heapin'
helpin' of the New World Order/One World Government/BATF/UN
conspiracy we have heard so much of since the Oklahoma City
bombing. That's the Inn's specialty. According to the plot, the
Feds and United Nations are trying to take away our guns; this is
why we have to stockpile as many of them as we can while they are
still legal. Then, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms comes to kill us like they did in Waco, we'll take out
plenty of them before they get us. On second thought, maybe we
should take out them first.

But what we want to emphasize is the "Friendship" part of the
camp-out. Everyone should have a good time.

The only UFO conference endorsed by the Area 51 Research Center is
the one sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota this coming
October. It is called "The Science and Politics of UFO Research."
It will focus on scientific methods, and there will be no
channeling or past-life regressions. We were impressed with last
year's conference. Apart from an appearance by Dr. John Mack, who
seems little concerned with physical realities, we found the
speakers entirely sane and thoughtful. We made a lot of good
contacts there and encountered some interesting ideas, most
notably those of James McCampbell, who studies the physical
effects of UFOs like sounds and microwave emissions.

Our Regional Director Glenn Campbell will be speaking at the
conference this year, along with Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Jeffrey
Sainio, Dr. Richard Haines and others. The two-day conference
takes place on the weekend of Oct. 28-29, 1995, at the Radisson
Hotel in downtown St. Paul. The fee is about $100; this includes
no buffets or tenting rights, but we still regard it as a
worthwhile investment. For a brochure, email penson@geom.umn.edu, or call
the Science Museum of Minnesota at (612) 221-4742.

Regional Director Campbell, who is still officially a Rachel
resident, has voiced his opposition to the "Alien Highway" bill
now pending before the Nevada Legislature. The bill would
designate State Route 375, the public highway through Rachel and
closest to Area 51, as the "Extra Terrestrial Alien Highway."
Signs to that effect would be posted on the road, but Campbell
notes that they would probably be stolen by tourists like the Air
Force road sensors [DR#17]. In written testimony submitted to the
Legislature's Committee on Economic Development and Tourism for a
May 19 hearing [See alt.conspiracy.area51], Campbell said that
only a single business was in a position to benefit from this
bill, the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel. Campbell argued that giving
the Inn additional free publicity would promote their extreme
political views and further disrupt the balance of power in this
tiny community. Campbell also said that making this remote
highway more "tourist friendly" would encourage the very naive
visitors, up for the day from Vegas, who were bound to cross the
line or otherwise get themselves in trouble.

The strongest proponent of the bill is Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II
from the planet Draconis [DR#2],
who currently resides in human form in northern Nevada. On behalf
of this bill, he has been actively lobbying the Legislature with
single-minded intensity. The sourpuss Campbell writes....

Although this bill is sponsored by Assembly members, there is
another citizen who feels that this is "his" bill. The Ambassador
Merlyn Merlin II of the Saucerian Embassy of Christ probably sits
before you at this hearing. Ambassador Merlin believes he is an
extraterrestrial who has been sent to this planet to prepare us
for the coming alien arrival. While I cannot pass judgment on
Merlin's claims, I can attest to the fact that he makes a very
poor ambassador. Merlin has no understanding of the privacy or
private property of others. He latches onto people who he
believes are 'chosen' and he won't leave them alone. A number of
citizens in Lincoln County and elsewhere in Nevada have felt that
Merlin was stalking them. Some believe that Merlin is not an
alien at all but that he is in fact a human with some profound
personal problems. If this true, then passage of this bill
encourages him in his delusion. He will forever be claiming that
he pushed this bill through the legislature, and he will
take it as proof of his legitimacy.

A couple of years ago, Merlin invited Secretary of State Cheryl
Lau to a meeting in California. Ms. Lau wrote Merlin a letter
politely declining, but she made the mistake of addressing him by
his chosen title of "Ambassador." Since then, Merlin has been
showing the letter to people as "proof" that the State of Nevada
officially recognizes his ambassadorial status. Passage of this
bill, which he has been promoting, can only provide further
affirmation and encourage his continued intrusive behavior.

Among Merlin's regular haunts are some of Nevada's fine legal
brothels. He only sits at the bar, however; he does not partake
of the merchandise. An alien ambassador, he explains, "does not
spill his seminal liquor." Nonetheless, Merlin is prepared to
imbue women with his sexual energy, which he says has healing
power. It is unclear how he does this without spilling any
liquor, but evidently he has been trained. Some women must go for
this, because we got a call once from one of the working ladies at
an establishment up north who had taken a shine to Merlin and
wanted his phone number.

Among Merlin's involuntary "chosen ones" are Psychospy, Jarod 2
and Lincoln County Commissioner Eve "Mad as Hell" Culverwell (one
of the few local politicians we respect [DR#2]). The latter first met
the Ambassador when she was visiting the Little A'Le'Inn with
Agent X during a previous UFO loonfest. Merlin stared at her
intensely from across the crowded room then made his move. The
Commish was wearing a little Star Trek communicator on her chest
that went "beedeep" when you press it--which the Ambassador
repeatedly did. This just illustrates how unfamiliar Merlin is
with our human cultural protocols: Here on Earth you don't EVER
touch a lady's communicator without her permission. The Commish,
however, was impervious. She had been ranting on about the evil
Feds; she didn't have her sensors on, so when the Ambassador
introduced himself and started pressing her communicator, she was
merely amused. Merlin told her she was "chosen" (bet he says that
to all the girls), and he anointed her on the forehead with a
special oil he called "Love Potion #9." Somehow, in a thoughtless
moment, the Commish gave Merlin her business card, as X tried
valiantly to wave her off: "Don't do it!"

But it was too late. Sure enough, a few days later, the
Ambassador turned up at the Commissioner's door. Poor Ambassador!
The Commish, you see, is not to be messed with. At 100 pounds of
fighting fury, she could rip the liver out of any man, which is
what she threatened to do if Merlin ever dropped by again.

The Ambassador made a brief appearance in one of the video clips
on the Larry King show, but his big day in the sun will be the
upcoming CBS Sunday Morning segment on May 28. The
crew spent some quality time with the Ambassador along 375 after
visiting our Las Vegas annex.

Long time rock promoter John Brower's DREAMLAND PRODUCTION
GROUP has taken over the Las Vegas, Nevada, nightclub formerly
known as The CAVE at 5740 West Charleston. It has been renamed
AREA 51, and the adjacent lounge will be known as DREAMLAND.

"The facility was perfectly suited to our purposes as it has a
custom designed interior resembling an underground grotto. We can
accommodate some 400 persons and will feature both live music and
all night dancing. We expect the club to become a mecca for UFO
and alien information with regularly scheduled speakers and
contactees who are now coming forward with information that
shatters the antiquated belief system that we are alone in the
universe," said Brower.

The DREAMLAND PRODUCTION GROUP is awaiting final city approval
to erect a flying saucer on the club's roof. The saucer is famous
for having been used by Michael Jordan and NIKE in last year's
"Hare Jordan" commercial shown world-wide on television. Brower
adds, "The flying saucer will appear to have crashed on the roof,
complete with smoke and flashing lights. We hope Michael will
come by and sign the saucer during his next visit to Las
Vegas."

The nightclub will feature alien costumed cocktail waitresses
and military clad security personnel. Drinks will be given cosmic
names and photos of the secret military installation taken by
world famous researchers will be on display throughout. The
DREAMLAND Lounge will open Thursday, May 18, 1995, while the AREA
51 nightclub is being readied for a June opening. Live music will
be featured between 8pm and midnight with dance music thundering
from the sound system until 4am.

God is coming. Just open the bible. Al through the old Testement
is the prophecies we are seeing now and if you look in the new
testement you will see that it conciedes with the old. And the
new was written centuries after the old was written. Everything
is coming to pass. In the year 2005 the planets will all be in a
straight line to the sun. Everyone thinks the world will end in a
atom bomb. I believe the end is going to come from out in space.
Maybe a asteriod colliding with earth. Or weather you believe it
or not maybe beings from another world. Supposedly in Area 51 in
Nevada there are beings there now. The government has un marked
planes that fly into there all the time. Before you could go as
far as Rachel Nv now you can't get that close. Why? What are we
hiding there. People that get too close tend to disappear off the
face of the earth.

LAZAR FLAWS SERIES. The newsgroup alt.conspiracy.area51 has
become more active lately. Among other rantings and discussions
have been posts by Tmahood@netcom.com of his "Lazar Flaws" series
pointing out defects in the S-4 story and Lazar's background.
Lazar associate Gufon@ix.netcom.com has responded to these and a
lively debate has ensued. We suggest that interested parties look
in on a.c.a51 soon before the postings expire. (If you can't find
the Lazar Flaws there, they may eventually turn up on the WWW.)

IT HAS BEEN REPORTED TO US that the FOIA office of the Defense
Mapping Agency has received over 100 requests for the Nellis Range
Chart in response to DR#21, with
Campbell's being the first. The color and B/W reproductions now
offered for a fee [DR#23] are
reported to be very good. If you want the map, we suggest you
still file a FOIA and let them tell you about the fees.

WE ARE NOW AWARE OF FOUR AREA 51 MOVIES in the Hollywood pipeline
(which doesn't necessarily mean they will all be completed). One
is the Robert Carradine film [DR#25], although it certainly won't
be filming in June as reported in Variety. Another
is Independence Day, which we now understand is a $40
million action/adventure film from Twentieth Century Fox and the
director of Stargate [Roland Emmerich]; it is reportedly now in pre-
production. The third Area 51 film was announced by record
producer David Trickle and reported in Variety on
Apr. 24; it may be only in the early talking stage.
(Variety reports that this Area 51 is a
$5 million film about extraterrestrials scheduled to shoot in Jan.
'96.) Finally, to our surprise, the Lazar movie still appears to
be alive at New Line cinema, but we have no idea where it stands.
In addition, there seem to be a hundred "Dreamland" scripts now in
development, in both private basements and corporate headquarters.
Sooner or later, SOMETHING will make it to the big screen, and
then the media frenzy will start all over again.

KABC-TV CHANNEL 7 OF LOS ANGELES was the first news crew to visit
Tikaboo Peak, huffing with us to the top on the May 13 hike.
(Their resulting stories were broadcast on May 15, 19 and 20.)
Both the Tikaboo and Mt. Sterling hikes were uneventful, but the
weather was cold and partially overcast. Some snow fell on the
Tikaboo hike, but the secret base did break through the clouds on
occasion. We will probably hold a repeat of the Tikaboo hike in
July, when the weather should be ideal. Our June hike, probably
at the end of the month, will be to a little-known mountain just
northeast of Mercury that offers an unrestricted view of the
Nuclear Test Site. More details on that adventure will come in
the next Rat.

NEW PRODUCTS: We now carry UFO Crash at Aztec, the
difficult-to-find bible of the alleged 1948 New Mexico crash
mentioned by Alfred [DR#23]. Its
625 pages are packed with data, rumors and government documents
concerning not only the Aztec crash but also Area 51 (this account
pre-dating Lazar). The scholarship is weak in places, but there
are plenty of clues for any wannabe Sherlock. Published in 1986
by William Steinman with Wendell Stevens. Available from us for
$20 plus $5.00 priority mail postage (due to weight). [But see
negative reviews of Aztec crash in
DR#27.]

We now sell official 4" vinyl self-stick emblems from the White
Sands Missile Range for $2 each. (No postage needed if ordered
with another item; $0.50 otherwise.) We also carry the acclaimed
and highly depressing 1993 volume American Ground
Zero, by Carole Gallagher. This large-format, softcover
art book (360 pages) records in words and black-and-white
portraits the stories of the nuclear "Downwinders" in Nevada and
Utah and their devastating diseases. $30 plus $6 postage.

NEW PRINTED CATALOG. The Research Center has just published a new
printed catalog in booklet form. It has 15 illustrated pages
showing all of our traditional products plus a number of new ones.
For a free copy, send your postal address to us at area51rc@aol.com or: Area 51
Research Center, HCR Box 38, Rachel, NV 89001.

THE CURRENT EDITION OF CAMPBELL'S Area 51 Viewer's
Guide has not changed since the land grab, but it does
provide an adequate Tikaboo Guide. The sections on Freedom Ridge
and White Sides can simply be ignored (as advised by a new warning
sheet in front). We expect to come out with a new post-grab
edition, but it may take a couple of months.

OUR CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE BELOW. We welcome your input, but
please be brief and make any requests as simple as possible, since
our email load is now enormous.